SYNOPSIS

IMPORTANTNOTE

You will need the ash(1) shell to use this script. It is available in
its own Debian package (also named ash).

DESCRIPTION

The pcinitrd script creates an initrd ram disk image for booting with
the root filesystem on a PCMCIA device. If the target is a block
special device (i.e., /dev/fd0), then the initrd image is created on
that device. If the target does not already exist or if it is an
ordinary file, then pcinitrd will create the image file using the
‘‘loopback’’ device.
Modules are specified with paths relative to /lib/modules/[kernel-release]. The core PCMCIA modules (pcmcia/pcmcia_core and pcmcia/ds)
will automatically be installed in the target image. All other device-
specific modules need to be listed on the command line, along with the
appropriate socket driver (pcmcia/i82365.o or pcmcia/tcic.o).
Alternatively, if -a is specified, then all available PCMCIA socket
drivers and block device drivers will be included in the image.
Additional files to be copied to the initrd image may also be listed on
the command line. Executable programs will be installed in /bin,
shared libraries will be installed in /lib, device files will be
installed in /dev, and any other files will be placed in /etc.
The startup script in the resulting image, linuxrc, may need to be
customized for a particular system. It contains the same variable
definitions as the normal PCMCIA startup scripts (i.e., PCIC=,
PCIC_OPTS=, and CORE_OPTS= variables). The /etc/config.opts file may
also need to be edited. Any changes to linuxrc or config.opts will be
preserved if pcinitrd is executed in ‘‘update’’ mode.
Another feature of the generated linuxrc is that if the DEBUG variable
is set to a non-blank string at the boot prompt, then cardmgr will echo
all its status messages to the console, and after linuxrc executes, it
will fire up a shell on the console. This can be helpful for debugging
initrd problems. However, few commands are available in the normal
initrd environment.

OPTIONS

-v Verbose mode. Identify files as they are copied.
-a, --all
Install all socket drivers and block-style PCMCIA device
drivers, including memory card, SCSI card, and fixed-disk
drivers. This is mainly intended for use by package
maintainers.
-dalternate-root, --dir=alternate-root
Specifies an alternate directory tree to search for all the
files used to put together the initrd image. This may be
helpful for running pcinitrd after booting from an installation
or rescue diskette.
-rkernel-release, --release=kernel-release
Specifies the kernel release number (i.e., 2.0.28) to use when
looking for modules in /lib/modules. The default is the release
of the running kernel.
-simage-size, --size=image-size
Specifies the filesystem size to create on the target file or
device, in 1k blocks. The default is 2400.
-u, --update
Update mode: updates cardmgr and all the kernel modules in an
existing initrd image, but does not modify other files.